Flossie is expecting a litter of puppies in just a few days and Duncan is the sire. Those of you who have read the other pages of this website will notice something immediately - Duncan is Flossie's sire too. Now, before you begin to get upset with me for being an irresponsible breeder and inbreeding my dogs, let me explain a couple things. All dog breeds are created by some form of inbreeding. What is a dog breed? It is a specific line of dogs that all share the same traits. (I know, my definition is a bit over-simplified, but you get the point.) To get this specific line of dogs, someone had to focus on those traits and lock them into the bloodlines. This means that related dogs - often very closely related (such as brother/ sister and father/ daughter) had to be bred. This is why all members of the breed are alike. It is also why many breeds have breed-specific diseases and ailments. Inbred dogs are not as hardy as outcrossed dogs - to a certain extent. Careful selection and a strong original gene pool drastically reduce the risks of inbreeding, especially in the first generation or two. Many breeders - and many good breeders - still use inbreeding/ linebreeding/ backbreeding to improve certain traits in a bloodline. Too much inbreeding also enhances bad traits - for instance, a show breeder might get that perfect head shape, but end up with lots of hip dysplasia. For this reason, I will not intentionally inbreed my dogs. (Though I will, to some extent, with our livestock.) Flossie was supposed to be bred to an unrelated Great Pyrenees on her next heat and she was locked up in my "secure" kennel during the day, and in a wire crate in the barn at night. That is, she was locked in the wire crate in the barn every night but one. Yes, one night we got home late from church and I thought, "Oh, dear, I have to lock Flossie up. She hates it, Duncan camps out next to the crate and wrecks the barn trying to get to her, and I have to lock him up and take her out on a leash at 4AM so she can go potty. It's after 10PM now. That pen/ kennel she's in is secure and she's almost out of heat anyway. If Duncan was going to bust in, he would have done it by now. I think I'll just leave her there tonight." The old kennel (where she was) had 8' high walls, a stout door, and wire buried about 12" under the entire floor. To get into it, Duncan would have to dig down a couple feet, then up through the wire. I figured if he was that desperate, he would have done it by now. (She had already been locked up for a week, and Cleone had been in there a few days before that.) You can guess the rest of the story. Sure enough, the next morning as I was peacefully writing in my office, after sleeping in until 5:30 or so, along came one of my little brothers to tell me that "Flossie and Duncan are trotting down the driveway." My heart sank. For the next 5 weeks or so, I monitored Flossie closely, trying to determine whether she was really pregnant. She definitely is. Her due date is next Wednesday, but I think she will whelp before that. Now that I have made full confession, let me tell the good news. Flossie is 50% Great Pyrenees. Duncan is from unrelated bloodlines (his mother is imported from Britain and his sire is American.) Neither is carrier or affected by any genetic disease, as far as I know. This means that their puppies should be just as healthy (healthier, in fact) as any purebred mutt puppies out there. They will have a double dose of Duncan's wonderful temperament and hopefully only half of Flossie's stubborn Great Pyrenees nature. They should make amazing farm and family dogs, and they will be much less expensive than my pedigreed Border collies. Though I would not have done this intentionally, and never plan to do it again, I am very interested to see how this litter turns out. I fully expect them to be great. All Flossie's puppies will be sold with a contract and raised just like our other BC pups. They will be good quality dogs that deserve just as much love, care, and attention as the other pups we raise, here at the SandSpur Ranch. Please let me know if you are interested in a puppy from this litter. I am happy to discuss any questions or concerns you might have about this breeding. These 3/4 Border Collie, 1/4 Great Pyrenees puppies will be $600 each. P.S. Duncan's escapade produced one immediate good result: I bit the bullet and spent the necessary money to build a good dog kennel. It is a HUGE upgrade to the old "just making-do" setup. While it is still under construction, I am super excited to now have a real kennel with multiple, good-sized bays for my dogs when necessary. They will continue to run free most of the time, but when I do need to lock them up, I'll be able to do it in a safe, secure environment now.
And if Duncan digs underneath and comes up through 4" of concrete flooring - well, I guess I'll say the litter was meant to be!
4 Comments
Patty Mulholland
4/9/2018 06:33:53 pm
I am very interested in these pups. How big will they get. I know great pers are really big and sweet.
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Patty Mulholland
4/9/2018 06:45:38 pm
Hi. Do you have any of these pups left?
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Alayna Feldman
4/9/2018 07:56:19 pm
Hi, Patty,
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8/1/2022 12:11:15 pm
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AuthorMy name is Alayna Feldman. I have been greatly blessed and am thankful, first and foremost, to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has saved me. I am also deeply thankful to my parents, who have raised me in a stable, safe, loving home and taught me about what is most important in life. Archives
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